Abstract

TEMKIN, Samuel. Miguel Núñez, sponsor of the colonization of Nuevo Reino de León. Sig. his [online]. 2019, vol.21, n.42, pp.8-33.  Epub Aug 03, 2020. ISSN 1665-4420.

After the conquest of the Aztec empire, the region to the northeast of New Spain remained in the hands of several indigenous tribes and Philip II granted Luis de Carvajal de la Cueva permission to begin the colonization of that region. Although Carvajal was now allowed to discover, pacify and colonize that territory, he did not have the necessary money to start the enterprise. In the first part of this article, I will consider, based on archival documents, who could have provided the funds. Although the documents found so far do not clearly show it, I believe that it was Miguel Núñez, Carvajal´s father-in-law, who contributed the largest part of the initial cost. The second part presents a brief biography of Núñez, whose interesting life included four years in the jails of the Inquisition, and was spent in Portugal, Spain, Morocco as well as in other parts of the New World, particularly in the island Hispaniola.

Keywords : inquisition; Luis de Carvajal; New Spain; slave trade; Santo Domingo.